For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding...hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe

As a combined unit they work well as a team. Ekong has the athleticism to react to danger and Leon the football IQ to anticipate it and snuff it out.

Awaziem is an able backup and if we get our boy in Germany to pledge allegiance then our WC CB quartet is set.

I would like to see them tested against a strikeforce made of of say the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sergio Aguero. Now these guys are quick and leave defenders for dead.

If you look at the way Real Madrid use the pace of Gareth Bale and Christiano Ronaldo to launch counter-attacks, you will get my point. I would like to know how Ekong and Balogun would handle such a combined threat.

Rohr should play a friendly against the team with the quickest strikers he can find so we have an answer. In 2014, we learnt a lot from playing against Mario Balotelli in that 2-2 draw with Italy.

Leon and Troost are up against pacy and quality strikers, week in week out in their respective leagues and the rudiments are pretty much the same.

In the recent game against Zambia, they were pretty much up against it, same as in the games against Cameroon. However, in all the encounters they pretty much held their ground. Defence is always down to how you play as a collective unit and set yourself up. Rohr is a defender and naturally that is a key focus area where he will be able to give direct input to his team. Infact, this is the area where we have improved the most in recent times.

Finally if Rohr needs to access the answer to your question, he has the likes to Victor Moses, Onyekuru, Musa and co to run at them all day in training.

Maybe we should trot out the pair against Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin, to appease Ayo.

_________________Though religion is a concept that simply can not be ignored. The fact that a deity couldstand idly by while one of his creations slaughters another simply in his name, is a mystery Idoubt theologists would dare touch.

Maybe we should trot out the pair against Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin, to appease Ayo.

Some coaches do use that tactic. They bring in athletes to train with their players just to get the best out of them.

I see nothing run with testing both of them against a sub-10 second sprinter just to see how they will cope. Anyway, i trust Rohr will be thinking of all these plans.

We heard about this same trust earlier when you seemed so sure Rohr was going to call up the players you kept forcing down our necks, until he released his list and disappointed your "trust"... goes to show either you are one step or two behind in Rohr's trust plan, or you should just quit trusting all together.

The Argentina friendly will be the first real test for Ekong and Balogun against a world class team, so far they have only been tested by African sides and have more than held their own ...but the friendly against Argentina will give us a better preview on how the "Oyinbo wall" can handle South American waves of attack, if they past the test at least considerably, then we should look forward to a lot next year in Russia... God bless the organizers of this friendly match.

The Argentina friendly will be the first real test for Ekong and Balogun against a world class team, so far they have only been tested by African sides and have more than held their own ...but the friendly against Argentina will give us a better preview on how the "Oyinbo wall" can handle South American waves of attack, if they past the test at least considerably, then we should look forward to a lot next year in Russia... God bless the organizers of this friendly match.

And if they don't pass the test what is going to happen?

_________________

"If winning isn't important, why do we spend all that money on scoreboards?“ --Chuck Coonradt

The Argentina friendly will be the first real test for Ekong and Balogun against a world class team, so far they have only been tested by African sides and have more than held their own ...but the friendly against Argentina will give us a better preview on how the "Oyinbo wall" can handle South American waves of attack, if they past the test at least considerably, then we should look forward to a lot next year in Russia... God bless the organizers of this friendly match.

And if they don't pass the test what is going to happen?

Not expecting them to be imperiously good, that's why I used "considerably" in context, if we concede 2 goals(which can be down to individual brilliance from the usual likes of Messi, Dybala, Aguero etc) but put up a very good defensive performance overall, I wouldn't consider that a bad outing, and if they fail to wither the storm and leak in goals upon goals(which I believe won't happen) ...it will still count as a learning process and eye opener , a much needed test nonetheless.

The key is the organization and discipline of the midfield shield in front of the CBs more so than the pace of those CBs. As Chelsea has shown recently, no matter how much pace Luiz and Azpilcueta have, they will struggle against strikers from Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Watford talkless of Man City if the midfield shield lacks coordination (due to Kante missing). Naija doesn't have Kante but we have Ndidi, Onazi and other options on the bench. They should suffice to mitigate any concerns about the pace of our CBs.